Fatal Lacey shooting ‘not a random act’

Originally published March 19, 2012 at 7:36 pm

Updated March 19, 2012 at 11:01 pm

Above: Police officers and a police dog check out the area outside a home in Lacey, Thurston County, where one man was killed and two injured in a shooting on Monday. A SWAT team was deployed, and eight schools were locked down during the search for the shooter. Below right: At the home where the three men were shot, crime investigators process the scene.

Police said the suspect in the Lacey, Thurston County, shooting was a guest in the home where the shooting occurred.

Police were searching for a man who shot three men, one fatally, at a home in Lacey, Thurston County, on Monday morning.

Lacey police Cmdr. Jim Mack said the suspect, identified by the two surviving victims only by his initials, was a guest in the home where the shootings occurred. He did not say what the man’s initials were.

The suspect left the scene on foot.

Mack provided little information about the circumstances of the shootings but said, “This was not a random act.”

While one shooting victim died in the house, the two who survived were able to flee to the home of a neighbor, who called 911.

The wounded men were taken to Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia, where they were questioned by detectives.

Two other men were arrested at a home several blocks away after it was surrounded by a SWAT team. Police said they found evidence of a burglary unrelated to the shooting.

“At this time we don’t believe they were involved in the crime as shooters, but those two people might have been at the home before the shooting occurred,” Mack said.

The shooting occurred in a home in the 5900 block of Daniel Loop Southeast, and the two men were arrested in the 5900 block of Stockton Street Southeast.

Ryan Thomas, 18, said his best friend lives next door to the house where the shooting occurred. “I’m there quite a bit and there’s a lot of cars coming in and out,” he said.

Mack told The Olympian newspaper there were unconfirmed reports about the victims’ wounds: One was reported to have been shot in the chest, another below the waist and the third in the head.

State Patrol spokesman Trooper Guy Gill said the Patrol is assisting with the investigation. He said that a Patrol aircraft was brought in to search for a suspect and that troopers are on the street searching.